One of the largest showcases of filmmakers’ creative spirit in the Midwest is the annual Kansas City FilmFest International, and this year’s fest was no different, attracting more than 2,000 attendees.
Held at the AMC theater on Ward Parkway, the September event was the newest iteration of what started off in 1996 as the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee. Just as in years past, the festival showcased movies from around the world but also many from local professional and student filmmakers. The original Jubilee festival was founded by Fred Andrews, who died in 2016 and, according to all who knew him, was one of the KC film community’s biggest cheerleaders.
“[Fred Andrews was] a force of nature,” says Tom Poe, professor of film and media arts at UMKC, who worked with Andrews to develop the first Jubilee festival.
The festival has always featured appearances by Hollywood heavyweights such as actors Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces), Debra Winger (Urban Cowboy), Arliss Howard (Full Metal Jacket) and others. This year was no different, with Terrence Howard (Iron Man and Hustle & Flow) making an appearance. A mix of 22 local and international narrative and documentary feature films and 52 shorts in all categories, including shorts from local students, were shown.
The selection of movies ran the gamut from the serious to the sublime to the downright goofy, becoming the entertainment and education backdrop for the festival’s greater purpose of giving aspiring artists a public platform. The hubbub of excitement was palpable as moviemakers, casts, crews, family and friends cheered on their favorite films, exploring a variety of topics from baseball mythology in The Bridge to hate and Covid in Invisibility and Rage.
And that is what makes KCFFI magical, especially for a first-time filmmaker, says Kevin Mullin, president of the KCFFI board of directors and a media art and design professor at UMKC.
“I’ve got a lot of feedback from students saying they just never imagined anything they would produce would show at a real theater like the AMC,” Mullin says. “It’s really a confidence-building kind of thing they get out of this.”
Panels at the festival explored topics such as using AI, creating and distributing vertical videos, pitching a film idea for a cash prize, plus a discussion by Hollywood filmmakers about the financial and location benefits of filming in Kansas City.
KCFFI is a juried festival. Among the top category winners are: Burn Scar by Hillary Bachelder, Best Documentary Feature; Whale 52 by Daniel Neiden, Best Narrative Short; Pedal Faster by Ira Good; The King of Black Goo by Andrew Zappin, Best Narrative Feature; and Seized by Sharon Liese, the Heartland Filmmaker award winner.
The Fred Andrews Emerging Filmmaker Award recognizing an emerging filmmaker went to Suenos, directed by Valerie Tiscareno. The award includes a $500 cash prize and a $750 production credit from Frameline Studios.
Melanie Addington, a former juror for the festival who stepped in as head programmer this year, says the organizers deliberately set out to include not only films about super-important topics but also fun, celebratory movies. “We selected some that are not giving you a powerful message,” she says. “It’s really kind of fun.”
For many of the festival films, Addington says, it’s about celebrating and feeling good after you walk out of the theater and laughing with people that you’ve never met before.
“It’s about ‘Oh yeah, this is why we go to the movies,’” Addington says.
